If we talk about the capital of a country, then it must be able to represent the spiritual outlook of a country very well.
It is the heart of the country, and it is a symbol of the prosperity of a country.
But Myanmar is an exception, and their capital is so desolate that it's hard to see a single person.
But what makes people wonder is that their original capital is not so desolate, but relatively prosperous, why do they have to spend 4 billion to build a new capital?
The "replacement" of the capital of Myanmar
If you take a closer look at the country of Myanmar, you will find that their capital "Naypyidaw" is different from the overall style of the country.
As the capital of a country, Naypyidaw is not valued as much as other capitals, but is alone in the middle of a canyon.
As far as the eye can see, there are almost no buildings around except for greenery, which also gives the impression of walking out of the woods.
Although it looks spectacular, once you walk inside, you will find that there are no people in sight on the streets of the city, let alone the traffic.
It is no exaggeration to say that Naypyidaw does have a very desolate feeling, like the "ghost town" described in the novel.
In fact, their original capital was not here, but in Yangon.
Yangon is located in the Wadi River delta of the Iror River in southern Myanmar, covering an area of 598 square kilometers, and the name of the city actually means "City of Peace".
Both the scenery and the climate are very good, and even the geographical location has a great advantage.
On the map, Myanmar is bordered by the Indian Ocean, backed by the remnants of the Hengduan Mountains on the mainland, and this mountain range extends to the south, which forms the terrain of the intermountain plains, thus giving rise to the "Irrawaddy River" with the same direction as a river range.
Mountains and rivers form a very fertile alluvial plain at the mouth of the sea, and Yangon, just on this alluvial plain.
It can be said that Yangon has a very big advantage, both from the geographical location and from various perspectives.
Since Myanmar's independence, Yangon has naturally become the "capital" of Myanmar and the political, economic and cultural center of the country.
But in 2005, Myanmar suddenly announced that it would move its capital to Naypyidaw, "deep in the woods".
You know, in the beginning, Naypyidaw was actually a very young town, and the economic development was not very good, and people had to drive at least 30 kilometers to get here from a prosperous place.
Since Myanmar decided to move the capital here, they have begun to spend huge sums of money on various "infrastructure projects" here, and since then, Naypyidaw's economy has gradually improved.
In fact, many people wonder why Myanmar wants to abandon its original prosperous capital and relocate to a "sparsely populated" place.
In fact, this matter has always been very controversial.
The reason behind the relocation of the capital
In fact, we can imagine that if the capital of a country is located by the sea, it is actually very dangerous, and there are too many force majeure factors such as natural disasters, which are very bad for the economic development of the whole country.
You must know that the capital is, after all, the economic center of a country, and it is generally the most populous and economically developed city in the country.
In the ancient history of the mainland, there have actually been many evolutions of the capital, but without exception, the location of the capital here is inland, not near the sea.
Although we all know that if we are close to the sea, water and land transportation are very convenient, but the risks faced by the city are actually relatively large.
In the event of a typhoon, flood or tsunami, the city near the sea will be the first to suffer.
The original capital of Myanmar, Yangon, is in a very awkward position, and it is still in a faulted area, so if an earthquake occurs, the damage here will be very great.
Therefore, this is actually a reason for them to move the capital, which is for the sake of the country's security.
From the point of view of military defense, Yangon is very flat, without any strategic defense depth, and in the event of a conflict with other countries, then their capital will become the enemy's target for sea and air strikes, and there is no chance of defense.
But Naypyidaw is the opposite, it is located in the "deep jungle", the location is very hidden, even it is very difficult to find, whether it is offensive or defensive, the location here is very good.
Besides, their old capital, Yangon, has been facing the problem of population growth and job opportunities.
Since this is the capital, people from all over the country want to go here for employment, and gradually, they enter a dead end, with more and more population, fewer and fewer employment opportunities, which is also an obstacle to the development of the whole city.
So, after all considerations, they decided to move the capital.
It can be said that in order to build this new capital, Myanmar has also spent a lot of thought.
It takes a lot of thought
As early as 2002, Myanmar officials began investing in the construction of the new capital, and it is said that they invested about $4 billion in the construction of the new capital.
With the blessing of all kinds of money, a mountainous area that was originally "poor and remote" has been built into a modern metropolis.
It has to be said that Naypyidaw is indeed very spectacular.
In order to maintain the style of their capital, the Burmese government directly moved the Shwedagon Pagoda, which was originally a representative building in Yangon, into Naypyidaw on a one-to-one basis.
But judging from the momentum, this Shwedagon Pagoda is completely able to suppress the original Peace Pagoda.
It can be said that the overall architectural style of Naypyidaw is not much different from Yangon, but the degree of luxury is far greater than that of Yangon.
Here you can see thousands of luxury hotels, hospitals, and even some entertainment venues.
Not only that, but they also built a national landmark park in Naypyidaw, which is ridiculously large and can take at least an hour to visit by car.
Even in terms of roads, they spent a lot of money to build them.
In Naypyidaw, there is a two-way 20-lane highway, and it is no exaggeration to say that this is probably by far the widest and most high-lane highway in the world.
If you use this highway to land a plane, it is estimated that there will be no big problem.
In order to promote tourism here, the local government has also built a number of tourist attractions.
Although they built the new capital so luxuriously, what they didn't expect was that many people were reluctant to move to the new capital.
This has also created a phenomenon that in such a luxurious capital, every street is empty, and there are basically no people.
In fact, this has also caused a lot of controversy, some people say that although the location of the capital is important, but it is not popular, then what is the capital called?
Information sources:
CCTV International, "[Global Times] Myanmar's New Capital Unveils the Mystery", March 27, 2007